Shimla : Nepali labour returning home from Shimla’s bus station in Himachal Pradesh are being frequently robbed of their hard earned money by gangs of local men but the Shimla police seems to look the other way.
Many people have reported to the Hill Post about rising incidents of poor Gorkha men being targetted in the last few months in the heart of Shimla.
The latest incident took place on March 11 when two Nepali nationals Prakash Bahadur and Nar Bahadur were looted of over Rs 27,000 by two local men .
Penniless when they tried to lodge an FIR at the Boileauganj police station the SHO said a report or FIR cannot be lodged as they had no proof of the incident including the vehicle number of the vehicle in which they were looted .
Humiliated first by the looters and then by the policemen Prakash and Nar Bahadur had no choice but to swallow all the insults .
They wondered after all they had lost how could they produce evidence of the men who robbed them . But they say they will never forget the faces of the looters .
“We were given a lift at the new ISBT station in Tutikandi Shimla by two men in a maruti car who said they were policemen (in civilian dress) and investigating a robbery case where these two were suspects ,” said Prakash.
“We were brought to the old bus station and then drove out of the city to Panchkula via Solan on March 10 . In Panchkula at around 2 .A.M. on March 11 they stopped near a rain shelter and drove away with all our hard earned money ,” they said .
Both were returning home to Nepal after earning over Rs 27,000 by working as manual labourers in upper Shimla’s Shalash and Karchari villages in the past few months.
Requesting a truck driver for a free lift they managed to return to Shimla where they were not even able to lodge a police report .
In a 20 year career published widely. He has worked for the BBC, AFP, The Statesman, IANS and the Business Standard . Known for his hard hitting writing and occasional off-beat stories. He lives in Shimla.
This is utterly sad thing to know that these instances are growing day by day !!
And by the way who made this foolish Guy the SHO ?? He could have filed an FIR ugainst Un Identified persons and started investigating..
The only reason could be that may be the persons in maruti car were actually policemen and this SHO has a share too….
H.P ploice has only one wrk do in its normal days and that is PROTECT AND ESCORT NETAS…they Sould do the POLICING job atleast when there is a crime being reported ..Out of 365 days 300 days are of fun for them coz there is liitle or no crime. I Dont know if this is reaching you Mr. SHO but you better get wrking and don’t wait for poeple taking laws in their own hands as the police service whom they pay the taxes for is nothing but a bunch of NETA SECURITY PARTY…
This is what police in india does to the poor. Had they been inflential, the SHO would have licked their shoes. I hope his seniors do not turn a blind eye to the plight of these poor fellows from Nepal. I hope our Government comes forward to help them out.
How long are we going to tolerate bullying by the cops? Sometimes they act like goons. They should understand that they are hired to maintain law and order and not to maintain their bank accounts.